1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to luminaires, including outdoor lighting canopies that are driven by AC line voltage and include multiple LEDs.
2. Description of Related Art
Outdoor canopy lighting may utilize multiple LEDs mounted within a housing to provide needed lighting. These LEDs may need a driver to generate the regulated current that is needed to drive the LEDs.
A single large driver is usually mounted outside of the luminaire housing to drive the LEDs. This has been done because of concern over the effect of noise generated by the LEDs within the housing on the operation of the driver, because of the absence of strong surge protection inside of the luminaire housing to protect the driver from surges in line voltage, and to make it easy to replace components in the driver that sometimes fail, such as electrolytic capacitors. However, positioning the driver outside of the canopy housing may require a separate housing to house the driver. This may add to costs and require added space for the separate housing
Drivers have also been designed to drive a chain of series-connected LEDs in sub-chain steps that correspond to the amplitude of the line voltage. Typically, the chain and each of its sub-steps consist of a small number of high power LEDs to minimize costs and maximize durability. However, high power LEDs can be less efficient and using a small number can result in spotted lighting patterns.